The present application relates generally to measurement systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for powering a device.
Known machines or other devices may exhibit vibrations or other abnormal behavior during operation. To measure such behavior, one or more sensors may be used to determine, for example, an amount of vibration exhibited in a motor drive shaft. Typically, to power such sensors, a power supply is coupled to the sensors through wires or other conductors. However, space and/or design constraints within a machine casing may cause the routing of such wires to be difficult and/or impractical. Moreover, the routing of such wires may be cost-prohibitive for non-critical machines.
In at least one known machine measurement system, one or more sensors parasitically harvest energy from machine vibrations. Such energy is converted to electrical energy to facilitate powering such sensors. However, machine vibrations may not be constant in duration or in amplitude. As such, energy derived from such vibrations may not be constant, and may be insufficient to consistently power one or more sensors.